A mobile application is a computer program designed to run on smartphones, tablet computers, or other mobile devices. Mobile applications are usually available through application distribution platforms, which are typically operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store, and BlackBerry App World. Typically, mobile applications are downloaded from an application distribution platform to a target device, such as an iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phone or Windows Phone.
Originally, mobile applications were offered for general productivity and information retrieval, including email, calendar, contacts, and stock market and weather information. However, public demand and the availability of developer tools drove rapid expansion into other categories, such as mobile games, factory automation, GPS and location-based services, banking, order-tracking, ticket purchases, and mobile medical applications.
Each mobile application is designed to communicate with a dedicated server or set of servers. Typically, if a mobile application's server shuts down or becomes otherwise unavailable, then the mobile application will not be responsive to user input. The mobile application provides no explicit indication to the user that the server is down or that anything is wrong.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.